Interactive devices have become very popular with consumers. One example of an interactive device is an interactive toy, which is a toy that responds to input from an external data source, such as a user or a video signal. Interactive toys are commonly implemented in the form of a child's doll, such as a teddy bear. An interactive toy will usually be capable of speech and/or motion, collectively referred to as interactive toy behavior. One example of an interactive toy responds to sound impulses, such as the speech of a user or other noises in a room. Another kind of interactive toy responds to data that is delivered by a data stream, such as data delivered via a video signal or over an Internet connection.
Transmitting behavior data via a video signal provides the advantage of enabling the coordination of a video program with a particular interactive device. For example, behavior data can be transmitted to a teddy bear interactive toy during a television program about the same teddy bear. Thus, the behavior of the teddy bear interactive toy can be coordinated with events occurring in the televised program. For example, the teddy bear interactive toy might sing and dance in concert with characters in the televised program.
Providing interactive data to an interactive toy via a video signal has been implemented in various ways. In an early implementation of such an interactive toy, behavior data was transmitted to the interactive toy in a portion of a video signal that was not viewable by the user watching the program. The interactive toy received the data by monitoring the video signal and extracting the behavior data from the non-viewable portion. Unfortunately, in this implementation the behavior data was transmitted in a portion of the signal that was not reproduced when the video transmission was stored on video tape. Thus, the behavior data could only be transmitted via a television broadcast and could not be transmitted via a video taped program. This deficiency limited the market for such interactive toys, as it is desirable to provide behavior data on video tapes that can be sold in conjunction with the interactive toy.
Another approach to transmitting behavior data via a video signal varied the brightness of portions of a video image. This approach provided the benefit of being reproducible on video tape, as the behavior data was transmitted as part of the viewable video signal. The brightness variations were associated with predetermined behavior data. When the interactive toy was placed directly in front of the television screen displaying the video image, a decoder on the interactive toy would translate the brightness variations into behavior data. While this approach permitted the behavior data to be stored on video tape, the approach had other shortcomings. Most notably, the image which refreshes only 60 times per second, makes this approach unsuitable for most applications requiring significant data throughput rates.
One of the more recent implementations of behavior data transmission technology uses the horizontal overscan portion of a video signal to transmit data to an interactive toy. Advantageously, the horizontal overscan portion of the video signal is reproducible on video tape. The achievable data transmission rate is limited by the much faster horizontal refresh rate of the video. The video signal can be decoded either by a separate decoder unit or by the toy itself to extract the behavior data. Once the data has been decoded, the data can be used to cause the toy to perform various speech or actions. Usually, this technology is implemented by transmitting the interactive toy content data during a television show or throughout a program recorded on a video tape.
Unfortunately, interactive toys existing in the prior art were unable to retain the ability to perform the actions defined by the extracted data. That is, once the data transmission was ceased (i.e., the television show or video taped program ended), then the toy lost its ability to perform the actions defined by the interactive toy content data. This problem exists for two reasons: 1) prior art interactive toys do not include a programmable non-volatile memory; and 2) prior art video data encoding systems did not provide enough bandwidth to transfer enough data to support such behavior retention.
Therefore, there is a need for a system capable of delivering interactive toy content data to an interactive toy at a high data throughput rate and for enabling the toy to retain the behavior defined in the interactive toy content data. The system should be able to be deployed over any means of delivering a video signal, such as via television antenna, cable television, or video tape. The system should be robust, such that the effects of data transmission errors can be minimized.